Connecting with WIPO

WIPO SMEs Newsletter July 2009

July 30, 2009

By the SMEs Division of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

WIPO SMEs Newsletter is a monthly e-publication providing readers with useful intellectual
property (IP) information contained in articles, case studies, forthcoming IP/SMEs relevant events,
and published presentations featured on our web site. We hope you will find it useful and
informative. We encourage you to share the newsletter or items of interest with friends and
colleagues. For past issues and information on the activities of the SMEs Division, please
visit
http://www.wipo.int/sme.

Case Study

Strengthening of Intellectual Property Rights in Mexico: A Case Study of Maize Breeding

Andréanne Léger looks at an exploratory study, performed in Mexico in the fall of 2000, which
attempted to identify the
impact of strengthening
IPR in the Mexican maize breeding industry. In contrast to the general perception that IPR act
as an efficient device to stimulate innovation and foster economic development, stronger IPR seems
to have had little impact on the industry.

Research

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights: Are Small Firms Handicapped?

In this
study by Jean O. Lanjouw and Mark
Schankerman, the findings show that small patentees are at a significant disadvantage in
protecting their patent rights, since their greater litigation risk is not offset by more rapid
resolution of their suits.

A survey of High Technology Firms

This research project conducted by Joseph J. Cordes, Henry R. Hertzfeld and Nicholas S. Vonortas
for the United States Small Business Administration is aimed at developing a fuller understanding
of the
activities, problems, and characteristics of
firms in high technology sectors, particularly small firms. One of the conclusions of the study
is that formal intellectual property rights appear to be far less important to these firms than
their market advantage and their ability to protect property rights through internal secrecy.

Does Active Use of Technology Market Spur R&D?: Empirical Analysis of IP Strategy of
Japanese Firms

In this paper by K. Motohashi,
IP strategy of Japanese firms is
analyzed by using firm level data from JPO’s Survey on Intellectual Property Related Activities. A
focus is put on firm’s strategy on development of its technology pool (in-house development or
external sourcing) and its use (internal use or licensing out of technology) for innovation
outputs.

Links

“Smell-alikes” and comparative advertising

Zoe Fuller reviews a recent decision by The European Court of Justice (the "ECJ") in the
L'Oréal
smell-alike perfume trade mark case, giving guidance on whether the promotion of imitation
products by comparison with famous brands is permissible under trade mark and comparative
advertising legislation.

State of the IP Industry - Survey 2009

The State of the IP Industry
Survey 2009, commissioned by CPA Global in association with IP Review magazine looks at the
impact of the financial crisis on the IP strategies of law firms and companies, the biggest
challenges that IP specialists are facing in their work and what they think should be done about it
and how do they see the industry developing in the next five to 10 years?

SME tailor-designed patent portfolio analysis

The Innovation and Patent-Centre at the Chamber of Commerce in Hamburg, a German think tank for
patent management, has now developed
a tool for
evaluation of patent portfolios specially suited for SMEs. In this article, Gudrun
Littmann-Hilmer and Michael Kuckartz describe the methodology of the tool and compare it to other
state-of-the-art tools.

Mariann Jelinek and Stephen Markham write that despite a long and productive U.S. history,
industry-university (I-U) relations have become increasingly testy around intellectual
property (IP). The authors address the major issues identified by the participants in a
workshop on university
IP sponsored by the National Science Foundation where industry, university, researcher, and
government representatives discussed issues well beyond what much of the literature on IP
recognizes.

Billions of Entrepreneurs in China and India

Entrepreneurship in both China and India is rising
dramatically and thriving under quite different conditions. HBS professor Tarun Khanna explains
what it all means in this Q&A about his new book, Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and
India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours.

Lost property: The European patent system and why it doesn’t work

In
this paper, Bruno van Pottelsberghe focuses on the performance of the patent regime, the
consistency of rules across countries and global governance questions concerning international
cooperation among patent offices which are of major importance for competitiveness and growth.

APEC Intellectual Property Rights Experts’ Group Public Education and Awareness

APEC Intellectual Property Rights Experts’ Group
has put together on its website a very informative and helpful set of Public Education and
Awareness products produced by members States, including, from Australia, China, Canada, New
Zealand and Singapore.

Forthcoming Event

The
ip4inno and the European Patent Office (EPO) is offering three 2-day
ip4inno training workshops this autumn. These "train the trainers" workshops
equip participants with practical IP knowledge to help others, and will address such important
topics as:

The patent system - how, where and why

Patent information as a source of technical help and commercial intelligence

A tutorial for how to make the most of the EPO's free patent database - esp@cenet

The specific IP issues in the "Creative Industries"; in the software and computing
sector; and in the biotechnology industries

Note:

The SMEs Division welcomes voluntary contributions of articles, case studies, news items, useful
links and relevant information concerning forthcoming events of interest to entrepreneurs and SMEs
for inclusion in future issues of this newsletter; contributions may be sent by email to
sme@wipo.int.

If you have received this newsletter from someone and would like to subscribe yourself, then
simply send an e-mail to
sme@wipo.int with
"subscribe" as the subject, and indicate your language preference (English, French, Spanish,
Arabic, Chinese or Russian).